It is known that exterior lightning protection devices alone are not sufficient to prevent damage to interior electrical equipment when lightning strikes. Excess currents may still be generated in electronic and electrical devices inside a building, vehicle, or craft. Thus, steps must be taken against the effects of currents caused by lightning and the resulting magnetic and electrical fields on interior metal installations and electrical equipment. The most important step in this connection is an efficient potential equalization to avoid thunderstorm electrical damages. Such equalization is accomplished by an effective connection of the endangered equipment to grounded metallic pipes or other grounding devices, if desirable, through spark gap arrestors.
Several versions of such grounding connectors are known for realizing the grounding of lightning protection systems. Normally, a grounding conductor is secured to a metal cable clamp which in turn is connected to the component to be protected while the other end of the grounding conductor is secured to a grounded pipe system or the like. Such cable clamps have also been secured to cable end connectors, including an end housing that itself is connected to an electrically conducting, protective cable envelope or cable casing, such as a wire mesh cable envelope. The use of cable clamps for these purposes is cumbersome, at least in those instances where it is not possible to place the cable clamp around the cable end housing or a sleeve extending from the end housing due to lack of accessibility. Even if the grounding conductor can be secured to the cable clamp by a screw connection, the placement of the cable clamp itself is cumbersome. Thus, efforts have been made to provide divided cable clamps that can be placed around a cable even if there is no free cable end. However, such divided cable clamps still require a connector and a sleeve for securing the divided cable clamp.
In addition to the mechanical difficulties of properly placing a cable clamp or even a divided cable clamp, the conventional devices have the further disadvantage that transition resistances occur between the cable clamp and the component to which the cable clamp is secured. Additionally, corrosion tends to start between the clamp and the sleeve or end housing to which the clamp is secured. Besides, the clamp itself requires an additional expense for making these separate clamps and their weight adds to the weight of the system.